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Sunday, 22 March 2015

I have written before (here) about the need for ruthless
editing in any business presentation and I have suggested looking to film and
TV directors for inspiration.They have
a phrase ‘Killing my Darlings’ to describe the fact that, having gone to all
the trouble of writing dialogue, acting it and then filming it, they go on to
throw much of it away – ‘on the cutting room floor’ or whatever is the digital
equivalent.

“Take a look at the ‘Deleted Scenes’ of your DVDs”, I say,
and you will get the director typically saying: “this was beautifully played by
both the lead actors; but it wasn’t really moving the story forward; so it had
to go”. They have to be ruthless in their editing for a number of reasons and
they usually end up with a better product as a result. Anyone who has ever sat
through a typical business presentation will probably agree that business
presenters could do well in taking inspiration from these killers of darlings.

Now, Jeremy Clarkson, who I often lean on for presentation
tips, has come up with perhaps the definitive description of the benefits of
killing some darlings. In his Sunday Times column on March 22 he wrote the
following:

I used to work on a
television show called Top Gear and every week the films were edited to a
length that felt good. But every week there simply wasn’t time to fit them into
the programme - so they’d have to be shortened. And without exception they were
better as a result.

Whatever you happen to think of Clarkson, most people who
have read his books and columns would agree he is a very talented writer. And
of course he scripted most of what went out on Top Gear. Quantifying just how
good he is is difficult, but I can offer this little personal insight into his
skills. Many years ago he and I were the only ones left at a dinner table in
South-London – possibly because no one else was interested in our somewhat
anoraky chat about the inner workings of journalism. “I have been writing
columns for so long”, he said, that if I am asked to write, say, 400 words, I
can start writing and come to a halt, knowing that I am within two-to-three
words of the 400 target”.And on that
note…. I shall come to a stop, with absolutely no idea whatsoever of how many
words I have written.

Tuesday, 17 March 2015

If you want to get ahead in business it usually pays to
display the expertise that your position implies whenever you can, everywhere
from the boardroom to the conference stage. Presentation skills can help to
create such a reputation and there is a trick to conveying expertise and being
remembered for it: find yourself some tasty bits of trivia.

The fact is that quantity and even quality of knowledge is
not necessarily going to enhance your reputation. Selecting knowledge that
creates insight is what you should probably be aiming for, but even that is not
necessarily going to make you memorable. To get people going away remembering
and re-telling your gems of wisdom you need to be counter-intuitive and come up
with a few simple one-liners that you might even go home and tell to your loved
ones.

Think in terms of the little stories Sir Michael Caine used to
come up with in his many chat show appearances. He claims he never actually
said: “Not a lot of people know that”, but it’s exactly the sort of thing he
would have said following one of his little trivia stories, so the phrase was
used by all the impressionists and became attached to his persona. Nowadays the
concept is exploited by Steve Wright on Radio 2 with his ‘factoids’ feature and
the long-running Qi TV series is built entirely around the concept of: “I heard
something quite interesting about……”.You know the sort of thing: Fleas
can jump 350 times their own body length; elephants are the only animals that
cannot jump; polar bears are left-handed.

So how do you make this work in business? Reflecting on what you say about your work to
friends and family is probably a good start. I was coaching a travel market
analyst in presentation skills; he was from Georgia and his latest assignment
was to become the expert on all things Russian within his firm. In the initial
run through of his presentation he displayed a lot of graphs and statistics,
which were all very sound but left little lasting impression. When we took a
break for coffee I happened to mention something about the big global online
brands such as Amazon, Google and YouTube.He responded, saying: “We have all those brands in Russia, except they
are rip offs. They work on the same model and at a glance they look the same,
but they are all fake versions”.

I suggested he should use this concept in his presentation
and he struggled at first to understand why it was applicable. I replied that
it was not directly applicable to selling travel in his region, but he should
remember his personal agenda: to become the ‘expert on all things Russian’.
Telling this story and showing some pictures will give his audience a little
bit of trivia they will remember and take away with them to use as chit chat at
home and down the pub, as well as around the office. He could justify a small
deviation like this as creating context for the hard facts and figures that
follow. The audience might not remember that data, but the trivia would make
them remember him as the ‘go to’ person on everything Russian. As a final
convincer, I asked him if he had seen Top Gear the previous Sunday; he said he
had missed it, so we looked it up on the iPlayer. Clarkson and May were
visiting China and they made a very entertaining and extremely memorable
feature on the fact that Western car brands such as Mini, BMW and even Rolls
Royce had all been copied by rip off replicas.

So stand back, look at the bigger picture and pick out a few
elements from the lighter side. That’s what is most likely to get you
remembered as the serious player in your field.

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Before embarking on a business presentation the presenter
should always review their content, asking themselves three fundamental questions
about their Visual Aids. PowerPoint should certainly be included within the
scrutiny; indeed that is probably where the questions need to be most probing.

1. Are my Visual Aids
visual?

Without getting bogged down here in a debate about pictures
vs. words, can your audience actually see the detail of your Visual Aids? How many
times have you heard presenters declare: “I know you can’t really see this but….”.Clearly it’s not visual, so it’s not aiding
anyone; it may even be doing more harm than good.

Some of the business presenters I have coached remain
oblivious to this point, so I end up asking them to come and join me towards
the back of the room, where I ask: “Can you see anything on that screen”?

To be sure that your Visual Aid is truly visual you therefore
need to see it on the screen on which you will eventually be presenting and you
need to view it from the back of the room. You may be surprised at how a Visual
Aid that looked clear on your computer or the page from which you scanned it
becomes quite indistinct once displayed on a big screen.

Particular danger
areas include:

Grey print on a white background, which can
become washed out.

Maps and property plans with a level of detail
that was designed to be read close up.

Graphs with thin lines – which probably need
bolding – and discreet, over-detailed or even sideways-positioned legends and
axis markers.

As I say, I am not going to get into a pictures vs. words
debate here, but you need to bear in mind that any bullet point loses most of
its impact once it tips over into two lines. Look at the pictures below – a
slide written for a business pitch; it is fine for a document, but useless for
presentation. Then the same slide, edited down to work effectively as a Visual
Aid.

Finally, bear in mind that you can fall foul of having too
many pictures, every bit as much as you can having too many words. How many
times have you been presented with a slide filled with multiple illustrations,
making you think ‘where am I meant to be looking?’, with the result that you
lose the thread of what is being said.

2. Who are my Visual
Aids aiding?

All focus with any presentation should be on the needs of
the audience. So are your Visual Aids helping the audience to understand what
you are saying more clearly?If they are
simply helping you to remember what to say, they are not Visual Aids, they are
prompts – and these should not be on display!

3. Are my Visual Aids
actually aiding anyone?

The most effective way to select Visual Aids is to start
with none whatsoever – and that means no PowerPoint. Run through what you are
planning to say to this particular audience and you will achieve a natural flow,
in your own style – you will not find yourself being driven by whatever Visual
Aids you have compiled. At certain points you will probably find yourself
struggling to describe something or taking longer than you should to do so – in
which case you probably need a Visual Aid. You only really want a Visual Aid on
display if it is actively helping your audience – and thereby you – at this particular
moment. You might be surprised at how few you really need.

There is plenty of research to prove just how important the
visual sense is to communication and in particular to ensuring that messages
are retained. But too many so-called Visual Aids are neither visual nor an aid
to anyone.

Thursday, 26 February 2015

We
have a saying in magic: “Props are your enemy”. I first heard it from the
American magician Rich Bloch, who explained that it’s a bit like Murphy’s Law –
‘if it can go wrong it will go wrong’; and with magic props there is often an
awful lot that can potentially wrong. Madonna’s tumble at the Brits
was much more that a simple, embarrassing ‘wardrobe malfunction’; it was a
full-on case of a prop biting back and threatening the whole performance. Like
the best magicians, Madonna hardly let it affect her, carrying on like the true,
hardened professional that she is, but how much planning went into managing the
props?

I
encourage business people to deploy props in their presentations – anything to
break the screen-induced trance. And if you have the actual item to hand why
not get it out rather than just project an image! My encouragement comes,
however, with the stern warning that ‘props are your enemy’ and you may live to
regret using one. Among the questions I ask are: How are you going to get in on stage? How are you going to unveil it
smoothly; Will it need support? Can you be sure it will work properly? How are
you then going to get rid of it to avoid it becoming an on-going distraction?

I
had exactly this situation recently when coaching a packaging executive who was
announcing a particular product going into his packaging for the first time. He
had the first samples with him and was keen to open one on stage as the climax
of his presentation. “OK” I said, with my usual provisos, “but we must rehearse
that carefully because, with all due respect to your packaging, it’s not the
easiest to open. And it will be even less easy without a solid surface, on
stage, under the spotlights, in front of hundreds of people”. Sure enough, in
rehearsal he fumbled in a way that would have be awkward in front of his
colleagues.Then, when he emptied the contents, it was the wrong product.Potentially super-awkward!

So,
for the actual show, we made small but definite slits in the packaging and also
had peek to check that it contained what the labelling said it did. It all went
perfectly and he received rousing applause – because we had approached the
situation knowing that props – potentially at least – are your enemy. Madonna
is clever enough to turn her tumble to her advantage in the long run, but I bet
she still wishes she had planned that cape removal a little more carefully.

Friday, 20 February 2015

Keeping to time in a business presentation
has always been important, but the pressure to do so has increased as the
demand for short TED-style talks grows. Now, five-minute presentations are the
order of the day at many business networking events.

There are actually many benefits of
speaking for a short amount of time, but let’s focus here on the dos and don’ts
of keeping to time.

Don’teven try to cram in all you would ideally like to say
to this particular audience. Ideally, choose one key message and focus all you
say around that.

Don’tspeed up just to cram in all you want to say – it will
simply diminish the effect of anything they manage to hear.

Don’tstart to embellish what you have rehearsed. However
nervous people may feel in advance of giving a presentation, they often start
to feel more relaxed as they get into the swing of it. As they a result, they
become more conversational in tone and stretch out what they had planned to
say, with the result that they run over time.Dostick to the plan!

Don’thave a ‘countdown-style’ clock or a system
of lights or signals in front of you. This will simply feel threatening; and
what are you supposed to do if you are running out of time? Speeding up isnotthe answer! Also,don’thave a digital clock in front of you.
When you look at a digital clock you need to ‘translate’ the digits into an
image in your mind to understand what you are seeing; that is going to distract
from your delivery.

Dohave an analogue clock within your general
view so that, with the merest glance, you can check you are broadly on track.
If you are giving a lengthy presentation, make a note of where you should be at
key points of time and mark these on any prompts you are using.

Dorehearse - and keep rehearsing - until you come
comfortably within the allotted time in a natural manner. That way, your
analogue clock simply provides reassurance – it is not driving you along!
Ensure that you have at least one rehearsal in the space where you will be
speaking – so as to overcome feelings of unfamiliarity.

Doaim to come in slightlyundertime. People will appreciate this and
it will give you an added feeling of comfort.

Doensure there is some leeway in your speaking time eg
‘between six and eight minutes, but no more’. Only TV presenters have to hit a
precise ‘mark’ as they finish speaking. That is a whole skill in itself and is
rarely required outside TV. If there is no leeway, then aim to come in under
time, so giving yourself some leeway.

Doremember that “Firsts & Lasts’ are the most
important parts of any presentation – they are what audiences remember.
Furthermore, your opening is essential to engaging your audience and your close
is where you send them away with your ‘big message’. If you run out of time,
you lose the ability to deliver your big message or have to do it in a rush.

Do– ideally – include some content towards
the end of your presentation that is ‘nice to have, but not essential’. That
way, you have something that can be cut if, despite all your preparation, you
are still running out of time. And your big finish can remain intact.

Finally, I was recently coaching a
business presenter on the concept of message distillation and he thought for a
moment, before saying: “I get it. Don’t tell them everything; just tell them
what they need to know.” He had, indeed, got it.

Thursday, 12 February 2015

The concept of ‘False Memory’ has been in the news this
week, with NBC news anchor Brian Williams being suspended after his bosses were
forced to consider why he had claimed incorrectly to have been in a helicopter
that was shot at during the Iraq war. Had he been lying, exaggerating or
suffering from ‘False Memory’?The
latter sounded unlikely but is perfectly possible, according to Chris French,
Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, who contributed to a Newsnight
discussion on the topic.See here (until
mid-March 2015, starting at 40.42).

Williams' slip up was less surprising to those of us in the magic community,
who exploit the False Memory principle somewhat shamelessly. A lovely example came up
last night when the much-admired American magician Wayne Houchin lectured at
The Magic Circle.Among the items he
demonstrated and taught to us were: 1) Sucking a thread into his mouth and
pulling it back out through his eye 2) Swallowing a needle, followed by some
thread; then pulling the thread back out, with the needle attached.Later he advised us that it was a good idea to
perform both of these tricks in the same show – because False Memory Syndrome
kicks in.Audience members, he said,
come up to him afterwards congratulating him on ‘swallowing the needle and
pulling it back out through his eye’. “I just
keep quiet and thank them” said Houchin, “because that is a lot more impressive
than what I actually did”!

So the message for business presenters is: ‘Don’t let False
Memory get the better of you and your message’.I have written before in various ways about the need for high focus and
aiming for the ideal of basing your presentation around ‘one big message’. The
dangers of False Memory, it seems to me, provide another compelling reason to
maintain high focus.If you tell your
audience a list of things they might remember none of them; tell them one big
thing and you’re in with a chance. And if your audience members are anything
like Brian Williams - ‘America’s Huw Edwards’, according to Newsnight’s Evan
Davis - they might get that list of things mixed up to create a whole new
perception!

Finally, to anyone thinking of seeking help to exploit False
Memories to their benefit in the way magicians do, I would have to say: “that would
be devious; magicians are paid to be devious; it’s not such a good idea in the
business world! Let's talk instead about 'underlining' and 'bringing life' to your message."

Sunday, 1 February 2015

I
would like to add an element to what I have said before (see here) about
the importance of ‘Firsts & Lasts’ in any presentation or speech: make your
ending definite. Your audience needs to know for certain that you have reached
your conclusion. At the risk of sounding a bit ‘showbiz’, you need to create an
‘Applause Cue’ – a little signal that indicates ‘that’s all folks’.

So
what were Tony Blair and his speech writers thinking when they constructed his
Sedgefield resignation speech? He had learned from both the occasional disaster
(Women’s Institute conference) and many triumphs (The settlement train is leaving; She was the people's
princess…; I feel the hand of history…). Prior to his final party
conference he reportedly sought advice from Kevin Spacey in order to ensure he
went out with a bang. And yet, when he came to make the really big speech in
which he resigned as Prime Minister he finished as follows:

This is the greatest nation on earth.

It has been an honour to serve it. I
give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and
my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short.

Good luck.

You
can see what happened if you click on the video below and fast forward to 8.52.
He says: “Good luck”, then there is an awkward silence as audience members look at each
other for a moment, before eventually bursting into applause as Blair raises
his hands.He had created a ‘Have you
finished?’- style conclusion at one of the most crucial moments of his career.

So
you need to create an Applause Cue, whether or not you are expecting actual
applause. To achieve this you need a well constructed sign-off line, combined
with a sense of rhythm and emphasis. Think in terms of: Dum-diddly-um-tum…dum-dum. Blair could never have achieved this with
a mere two-word sentence. He needed to extend it a bit and add emphasis, gusto
and perhaps even a wave as he utters the words “good luck”.

This
applies to the everyday business presentation just as much as it does to a
Prime Minister bidding farewell to the nation. Your conclusion needs a
carefully constructed ‘Call to Action’ – the message that you want your
audience to go away remembering, but this needs also to be carefully rehearsed
so that it acts as an Applause Cue. If necessary it can be as simple as: “Thank you for your attention” –
as long as it sends out an unambiguous signal that you have finished.

Two
final points. First, however awkward or nervous people tend to be about getting
up to speak, once they have got started, they invariably find it difficult to
stop. They tend to ramble on longer than required – another reason to instil
discipline on how you finish.

Second,
even with a well-constructed and executed Applause Cue, business audiences are
often unsure as to whether applause is appropriate.So when you are in control of a meeting,
decide if you want applause. If you do, then get someone to act as ‘applause
leader’ – once one person claps, everyone else is sure to join in, because
applause is infectious!